At least 36 killed and dozens injured after train ‘crashes into truck’ and derails in Taiwan

At least 36 people have died and more than 72 others have been injured after a train derailed in eastern Taiwan, officials have said.

The train, carrying around 350 people, is believed to have come off the rails in a tunnel just north of Hualien causing some carriages to hit the wall of the tunnel.

Between 80 and 100 people have been evacuated from the first four carriages of the train, while carriages five to eight have “deformed” and are hard to gain access to, firefighters said.

Rescue efforts are ongoing, they added.

The official Central News Agency said a truck that was “not parked properly” was suspected of sliding into the path of the train.

“Our train crashed into a truck,” one man said in a video aired on Taiwanese television, showing pictures of the wreckage. “The truck came falling down.”

Images of the crash scene showed some carriages inside the tunnel crumbled and ripped apart from the impact.

With much of the train still trapped in the tunnel, escaping passengers were forced to scale doors, windows and roofs to reach safety.

The accident came on the first day of the four-day Tomb Sweeping Festival.

Taiwan‘s last major rail crash was in October 2018 when an express train derailed while negotiating a tight corner on the northeast coast, killing at least 18 people and injuring nearly 200.

In 1991, a collision in western Taiwan killed 30 people and injured 112.

© Sky News 2021